> The Washington Post wouldn't know sci-fi if it came up and slapped them in the face...
"Sci-fi" they know: they review it in their movie section. Science fiction, on the other hand, is likely to give them some trouble. It involves science, a subject utterly opaque to journalism majors.
> If every passenger's entrance and exit points from the system were recorded > individually, that data could be analyzed to make the entire system more efficient.
And think of the targeted advertising possibilities were your name, address, and banking details attached to that complete record of your travel patterns (not to mention the opportunities to detect "suspicious behavior").
In an ordinary unwritten work-for-hire situation you are paid to be present at the agreed-upon place at the agreed-upon time and to do what your employer tells you to do. If he tells you to boot a computer then that is what you are being paid to do. If he doesn't like paying you to sit and wait while it boots up he can do it himself before you start work or find something for you to do while it boots.
> However, instead of the proportion of women to men increasing, in Computer Science the > opposite is actually true. Specifically, in 2001-2, only 28 percent of all undergraduate > degrees in computer science went to women. Now many computer science departments report > that women now make up less than 10 percent of the newest undergraduates. What's going > on here, folks?
So when is the first software designed to process photos taken with one model of camera so that they appear to have been taken by another going be available on the Net?
> Of course someone who is stripping the exif data will never resize the image and run > some sharpening over the image just to cover their traces, right?
Some will, some won't. Criminals are notoriously careless and stupid.
> Yep, this one was taken by a Canon Powershot A510 of which only 5.7 million were sold. > We also know that this particular model was either sold in North America, Japan, Europe, > Africa, Australia, South East Asia and South America. That should narrow it down.
Yes. Of the 18 initial suspects only two own that camera. Concentrate your investigation on them.
That's not the purpose. Knowing the photo was taken with a D70 eliminates all the zillions of cameras out there that aren't D70s. It's like knowing that a bank robber is a 6' tall blue-eyed blond male.
> If innocent customers of the rouge colo got hurt when the lines got cut, then they > simply have to suffer the consequences of picking a bad host to buy services from.
No, they need to sue the colo for breach of contract (a class-action might be appropriate here).
> I host a few web servers at a colo. I have no idea what my neighbors are serving up. If > my sites were shut down without notice I'd be pretty unhappy.
Well, then you would sue the colo operator, wouldn't you? They are the ones who contracted to provide you with service. Would you blame the power company if it shut down your colo operator for breaching his contract with it by not paying his bill? Then why blame your colo operator's upstream provider for shutting him down for breaching his contract with them?
> If you're concerned about patents with the open source work you do, then you should use > a license with explicit patent clauses (such as the Apache license).
That is completely irrelevant to any (IMHO nonexistent) personal liability.
> While you're right, both user and contributor are probably liable depending on the > situation, I think there is a distinction between a liability that isn't worth you even > being sent a letter about and a liability that is worth someone suing you over.
True. In the US there are no statutory damages and no criminal penalties for patent infringement. The patent owner can only sue for actual damages. Your maximum liability as an individual user is the maximum royalty the patent owner can convince a Federal court that he could otherwise have collected from you. And Federal courts do not deal in trivialities.
As a contributor of source code your only liability would be for contributory or vicarious infringement but both require proof that you profited from your contribution. If you did the work as an employee your employer would be liable, not you.
I'm really not all that worried about the possibility that a court might order me to pay over to a patent owner every penny of revenue I have received for the sale of infringing products. Or even treble damages.
> Do you contribute to open source projects under your real name or a nickname?
Real, of course. Why would I want to hide?
> The openness of open source can be encouraging, but software patents you have never > heard of can become a nightmare if a patent troll sues for implementing 'their' scroll > bar.
As a pure unpaid contributor of source code you have no patent liability.
> A real name also means you end up in the big index we call search engines.
I've been using my real name on the Net for more than twenty years. I don't see the problem.
Slashdot Mirror
> The Washington Post wouldn't know sci-fi if it came up and slapped them in the face...
"Sci-fi" they know: they review it in their movie section. Science fiction, on the other hand, is likely to give them some trouble. It involves science, a subject utterly opaque to journalism majors.
> Why would you think I'm proposing fusing human and mammoth and giving humans hairy legs?
Because I see no other possible connection with this story?
Because most amputees would probably not want their missing limbs replaced with mammoth legs?
> Kinda sounds like BS to me...
It isn't.
> They are somehow different from normal clouds in that they trap more heat than they reflect?
No, they are like normal clouds. Some clouds reflect more heat than they trap, some trap more heat than they reflect. Contrails are like the latter.
> If every passenger's entrance and exit points from the system were recorded
> individually, that data could be analyzed to make the entire system more efficient.
And think of the targeted advertising possibilities were your name, address, and banking details attached to that complete record of your travel patterns (not to mention the opportunities to detect "suspicious behavior").
> Storing the data in the card does not prevent you from mirroring it on a server.
What's the point of doing both?
> The system is asynchronous, with the current balance and ticket data held electronically
> on the card rather than in the central database.
This is remarkably stupid.
Why has it suddenly gotten so bloody difficult?
So did you report this incident to the fire marshal?
There is no doubt that such an event would have been covered by workers compensation in the US.
In an ordinary unwritten work-for-hire situation you are paid to be present at the agreed-upon place at the agreed-upon time and to do what your employer tells you to do. If he tells you to boot a computer then that is what you are being paid to do. If he doesn't like paying you to sit and wait while it boots up he can do it himself before you start work or find something for you to do while it boots.
UUCPNet, Pathalias, and the UUCP Mapping Project.
Kids, indeed.
--
ihnp4!stolaff!bungia!foundln!john
You've got it! And think of all the other things that explains!
But... where does the "dot" come in?
> However, instead of the proportion of women to men increasing, in Computer Science the
> opposite is actually true. Specifically, in 2001-2, only 28 percent of all undergraduate
> degrees in computer science went to women. Now many computer science departments report
> that women now make up less than 10 percent of the newest undergraduates. What's going
> on here, folks?
A hint: what happened in March 2000?
It's also the cop's friend. They frequently find evidence that has been "disposed" of. Yes, I know that _you_ would do it right, but...
So when is the first software designed to process photos taken with one model of camera so that they appear to have been taken by another going be available on the Net?
> Of course someone who is stripping the exif data will never resize the image and run
> some sharpening over the image just to cover their traces, right?
Some will, some won't. Criminals are notoriously careless and stupid.
> Yep, this one was taken by a Canon Powershot A510 of which only 5.7 million were sold.
> We also know that this particular model was either sold in North America, Japan, Europe,
> Africa, Australia, South East Asia and South America. That should narrow it down.
Yes. Of the 18 initial suspects only two own that camera. Concentrate your investigation on them.
> Good luck on tracking a picture to my camera.
That's not the purpose. Knowing the photo was taken with a D70 eliminates all the zillions of cameras out there that aren't D70s. It's like knowing that a bank robber is a 6' tall blue-eyed blond male.
> Why are cell phones designed to be so insecure?
For the same reason bank accounts, Web sites, etc. are. Not more than one user in a million cares.
Grocery store aluminum foil would certainly suffice, but the foil on a chip bag might be too thin.
> If innocent customers of the rouge colo got hurt when the lines got cut, then they
> simply have to suffer the consequences of picking a bad host to buy services from.
No, they need to sue the colo for breach of contract (a class-action might be appropriate here).
> I host a few web servers at a colo. I have no idea what my neighbors are serving up. If
> my sites were shut down without notice I'd be pretty unhappy.
Well, then you would sue the colo operator, wouldn't you? They are the ones who contracted to provide you with service. Would you blame the power company if it shut down your colo operator for breaching his contract with it by not paying his bill? Then why blame your colo operator's upstream provider for shutting him down for breaching his contract with them?
> If you're concerned about patents with the open source work you do, then you should use
> a license with explicit patent clauses (such as the Apache license).
That is completely irrelevant to any (IMHO nonexistent) personal liability.
> While you're right, both user and contributor are probably liable depending on the
> situation, I think there is a distinction between a liability that isn't worth you even
> being sent a letter about and a liability that is worth someone suing you over.
True. In the US there are no statutory damages and no criminal penalties for patent infringement. The patent owner can only sue for actual damages. Your maximum liability as an individual user is the maximum royalty the patent owner can convince a Federal court that he could otherwise have collected from you. And Federal courts do not deal in trivialities.
As a contributor of source code your only liability would be for contributory or vicarious infringement but both require proof that you profited from your contribution. If you did the work as an employee your employer would be liable, not you.
I'm really not all that worried about the possibility that a court might order me to pay over to a patent owner every penny of revenue I have received for the sale of infringing products. Or even treble damages.
> Do you contribute to open source projects under your real name or a nickname?
Real, of course. Why would I want to hide?
> The openness of open source can be encouraging, but software patents you have never
> heard of can become a nightmare if a patent troll sues for implementing 'their' scroll
> bar.
As a pure unpaid contributor of source code you have no patent liability.
> A real name also means you end up in the big index we call search engines.
I've been using my real name on the Net for more than twenty years. I don't see the problem.